"The Viking attacks"

The Viking attacks:

Introduction:

A savage raid (incursione selvaggia) on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in 793 marked the beginning of England's Viking era. Lindisfarne was the first of a wave of similar attacks on monasteries in northern Britain.

• Why such hatred? (Perchè così tanto odio?).
• And why 793?.

History:

We need to examine the political situation in northern Europe at the time. The main ( principale) political powers in the world were: Byzantium in the east; the Muslims,whose expansion had driven them eastward ( verso est) as far as Turkistan and Asia Minor; and the Franks,who had become the dominant tribe among (tra) the successor states after the fall of the Roman Empire in the west.(Ovest).

CharleMagne,the ruler of the Franks,expended a huge amount ( quantità enorme) of energy on the subjugation  (sottomissione)of the heathen ( pagani)  Scots on his northeast border.(confini nord-est).

He has been crowned (incoronato) emperor in Rome by Pope Leo III ( Papa Leone III) in 800- emperor of the abstract conception of Christendom (cristianità) as a single community.

The cultural subjugation of the Saxons followed:

1. Death was the penality for following heathen rites or rejecting baptism.

• How should the heathen Scandinavians react to the threat? ( Come dovevano reagire alla minaccia?).
• Should the Vikings wait for Charlemagne's armies to arrive and convert them or should they fight to defend their culture?.

The Christian monasteries in northern Europe were symbolically important and, in the words used by modern terrorism, 'soft targets' (obiettivo facile). The Christian annalists who documented Viking violence viewed (hanno visto) the conflict as a battle between religious cultures.

In 865 ' the Great Heathen Army'  ( grande armata pagana) arrived, a force which after 15 years had gamed control (guadagnare il controllo) of England from York down to East Anglia.( Verso il basso della costa anglicana).

By 927 much of the lost territory had been regained (riaquistato) by the Wessex Kings Alfred The Great, Edward and Athelstan.

Large-scale Viking violence returned to England in the 990s. The policy of the Danegeld-protection money paid in return for being left alone (essere lasciato solo) -was practised regularly.

In 1012 the Archbisshop( argivescovo) of Cantebury was captured and murdered, and within two years a Danish king, Sven Forkbeard,was on the throne.

By 1028 his son, Cnut,was the ruler of a North Sea empire that included Denmark,Norway and all England. Danish rule during less than thirty years. Its memories were wiped (cancellato) out by William of Normandy's conquest in 1066.

Storia dei Vichinghi: